Chapter 848: The Omen Realm
Haelan and Jhyra stood at the forefront of the group. Their pale faces were drawn into tight and unreadable masks. They turned in unison and gestured toward the open void beyond the boundaries of Kyokai City.
A massive spirit vessel awaited them.
At first glance the ship looked like a derelict nightmare pulled from a mortal ghost story. It was a spectral galleon. Its hull appeared to be forged from rotting grey wood that was splintering at the seams. Tattered sails woven from thick fog hung limply from crooked and decaying masts. It looked as though a single strong gust of cosmic wind would shatter the entire construct into dust.
Li Yu walked toward the boarding ramp. He stepped onto the deck and the illusion of fragility shattered instantly. The deck beneath his boots did not creak. It was forged from an incredibly dense and strong spiritual material.
The ambient arrays woven into the hull hummed with a terrifying stability. The ship was as unyielding as a mountain peak. The rotting appearance was merely an aesthetic choice or perhaps a sophisticated camouflage designed to deter lesser scavengers in the void but the latter was unlikely.
Old Du and Khaos remained on the white stone pier. They did not follow him onto the ramp.
There was no need for an escort anymore. Li Yu was walking directly into the heart of a hostile empire but he was relatively safe. He held the lives of their thirty five most vital leaders in his hands. While the Eidolon Court was ruthless, they should not be that suicidal. They were desperate to keep living after all. It was extremely unlikely that they would sacrifice their entire ruling council just to trap him in their realm without any leverage.
Torend boarded the ship and took his place a few paces behind Li Yu. The gangplank retracted and the spectral vessel silently detached from the docks of The Veil.
The journey through the cosmic void began.
The atmosphere on the deck was suffocatingly heavy. The thirty five council members spread out across the ship. They stood like silent and brooding statues. They did not speak to Li Yu. There was absolutely no reason for them to offer pleasantries or engage in small talk at this time. Most of them hated him while others didn’t think that much of it but still didn’t talk to him.
These were ancient experts who commanded legions and governed realms. They had reached the apex or close to it of their civilization. To be forced into subjugation under a youth they had never met was a devastating blow to their pride. The fact that they had agreed to such extreme terms at all was a testament to the panic gripping their race. They were willing to swallow any humiliation to save their Ancestor.
Haelan and Jhyra stood near the bow of the ship. They stared out into the dark currents of space. They did not speak to Li Yu either. They were focused entirely on the desperate mission ahead.
Li Yu did not mind the silence. He actually preferred it over false presentries. He leaned against the railing and watched things blur past them.
Torend stepped up to the railing beside him. The bound general had been ordered to accompany them. As the only member of the Eidolon Court who had already accepted his subjugation days prior, he acted as the default guide.
"We are approaching the boundary," Torend said quietly. He pointed toward a swirling mass of dark grey nebulas in the distance. "We call it the Omen Realm. It is the cradle of our people and the seat of the Ancestor."
The spectral ship did not slow down. It plunged directly into the thick grey clouds.
Li Yu felt a subtle shift in the laws as they crossed the realm barrier. The darkness of the cosmic void was stripped away. It was replaced by a perpetual and haunting twilight.
The sky of the Omen Realm possessed no suns or moons. It was a vast expanse of swirling greys, deep purples and pale sickly greens. Ethereal auroras drifted lazily through the atmosphere like ribbons of glowing smoke. The light they cast was cold and shadowless.
Li Yu looked down over the railing and the landscape below was breathtaking in its melancholic beauty.
Jagged mountain ranges carved from translucent dark stone pierced the misty valleys. There were no oceans of water. Instead, massive rivers of glowing pale blue fluid carved their way across the continents.
"Those are soul rivers," Torend explained while following Li Yu's gaze. "They are the physical manifestation of the realm's ethereal energy. They flow directly from the deep core where the Ancestor rests."
Li Yu noticed that the rivers looked sluggish. The pale blue light was dim and choked with patches of murky and grey corruption. It was probably a visual indicator of the poison slowly killing the world.
The ship descended lower as they flew over the inhabited territories. Li Yu finally saw the architecture of the Eidolon Court.
The cities were built from a pale and bone like stone that was intermixed with spires of smooth dark glass. The buildings were incredibly tall and narrow. They resembled towering mausoleums or gothic cathedrals that faded seamlessly into the mist at their peaks.
There were no paved roads. The cities were connected by intricate bridges of solidified light that arched over bottomless chasms. Millions of Eidolon citizens moved through the streets below. They appeared as drifting phantoms wrapped in dark cloaks. They lived their lives unaware that the highest authorities of their world were currently bound to the young man flying above them.
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"The architecture is designed to channel ambient soul Qi," Torend noted. "Every spire acts as a tuning fork for the spiritual veins to allow for easier cultivation. It is also how we maintained things even as the realm began to decay in the last 20 years."
The ship flew across the desolate and beautiful landscape. The council members remained on deck. They wanted to see this process through to the very end. They needed to witness the results of their total surrender and see that it was worth it. That was the only way they would have any peace in their minds.
Eventually a massive structure emerged from the mist on the horizon.
It was the capital city of the Omen Realm. It was less of a city and more of an apocalyptic fortress. It was built into the center of a massive crater. Concentric rings of towering black walls absorbed the ambient light of the auroras. Ethereal flames burned brightly in massive iron braziers along the battlements.
Countless arrays hummed in the air. The defensive wards were so dense that Li Yu could feel them pressing against his skin from far away. They were not trying to hide them, they were clearly within view and can be felt. Millions of elite Eidolon soldiers were stationed along the walls and within the floating garrisons above the city. This was the most heavily fortified location in their entire empire. It was the entrance to where their Ancestor was resting.
The spectral ship bypassed the outer defensive rings completely. The arrays recognized the Qi signatures of the ruling council and parted like a curtain. The vessel descended into the very heart of the central keep and docked smoothly on a vast platform of polished black stone.
Haelan and Jhyra finally turned away from the bow. They walked down the ramp without a word. The remaining thirty three council members fell into a tight formation around Li Yu. It was a protective escort that also felt distinctly like an honor guard.
Li Yu disembarked and followed the two leaders into the cavernous depths of the central keep.
The journey downward was incredibly disorienting. There were no simple staircases or straight hallways leading to the core. The architecture of the fortress was a paranoid labyrinth designed to break the minds of any invading force.
Li Yu was led down winding corridors carved from smooth dark stone. The halls were devoid of any light sources but the walls themselves emitted a faint and ghostly luminescence.
They stepped onto a circular stone platform. Jhyra channeled a burst of Qi into the floor. The space folded violently. Li Yu felt a brief moment of intense vertigo before the environment shifted entirely. They appeared in a new corridor that looked exactly like the previous one.
They walked through overlapping teleportation arrays. Some required specific bloodline signatures to activate while others demanded complex techniques from Haelan.
The physical defenses were accompanied by terrifying illusions. As Li Yu walked down a particularly long hallway, the smooth stone walls seemed to melt away. He found himself walking on a narrow bridge of light suspended over an endless abyss of screaming faces. The faces reached up with elongated spectral hands trying to drag him down into the dark.
Li Yu kept his expression neutral. He knew it was an illusion but the sheer density of the soul Qi fueling the trap made it feel completely real. His chaotic domain hummed into life quietly just around him to stabilize his mind.
"Keep your eyes forward," Torend whispered from behind him. "Do not look directly into the abyss. The wards are designed to shatter the mind of anyone who lingers."
Li Yu followed the advice with haste. He realized that if he did not have the entire ruling council guiding him and disabling the active wards, he would have been hopelessly lost within seconds. The defenses were extremely well thought out and powerful. It made sense now that it only failed due to a betrayal at the highest level.
They traversed teleportation hubs, inverted gravity shafts and corridors of solid shadow. The descent took hours despite the spatial jumps. They were traveling deep into the realm.
Finally the winding corridors opened up into a massive subterranean cavern.
The cavern was entirely spherical. The walls were lined with thousands of glowing runes that pulsed in rhythm with a slow and dying heartbeat. At the exact center of the cavern stood a pair of colossal double doors.
The doors were forged from some kind of dark metal but it was clear they were not just ordinary metal. They were easily a hundred feet tall and covered in intricate carvings depicting the ancient history of the Eidolon Court.
Standing directly in front of the massive doors were two figures.
They wore heavy armor forged from pale overlapping scales. Their faces were hidden behind featureless masks of polished black glass. They stood perfectly still with massive halberds resting against their shoulders.
Li Yu stopped walking. He felt a sharp spike of warning from his instincts. It was clear that these were not ordinary guards from what they were protecting but they were even stronger than what would have been predicted.
The ambient pressure radiating from these two protectors was terrifying. They were ancient beings. Their cultivation bases felt just as deep and unfathomable as Haelan and Jhyra. They were clearly the ultimate shields of the Ancestor.
Haelan stepped forward and broke his long silence.
"These are the Core Wardens," Haelan explained while looking back at Li Yu. "They do not leave this chamber. They do not participate in council meetings or foreign wars. Their only purpose is to guard this door."
Li Yu narrowed his eyes. He had demanded that every single council member and leader be bound to him. These two were clearly leaders of immense power but they had not been present in The Veil. He had not known they existed. Haelan and Jhyra could have easily kept them a secret to preserve at least two of their apex fighters free from his control.
The two Wardens stepped forward. They did not raise their weapons though. They raised their armored hands to their featureless masks. With a synchronized hum of energy two shimmering orbs of translucent purple light emerged from their chests. They were offering fragments of their own souls.
"We agreed to your terms," Jhyra said coldly as she watched Li Yu. "Every leader of our people. We do not deal in half measures when it comes to agreements. Bind them."
Li Yu was genuinely surprised. The Eidolon Court was ruthless and cruel from what he knew. They treated lives as disposable assets. But they possessed a rigid and undeniable honor when it came to their bargains. They were adhering to the exact wording of the agreement without trying to exploit a loophole.
It was a small detail but Li Yu’s opinion of them ticked upward slightly. A ruthless enemy was dangerous but a dishonest one was even worse. These people kept their word.
Li Yu stepped forward. He reached out and accepted the two soul fragments. He guided them into his ethereal space and bound them with the silver chains of Astramentis’s technique. The two ancient Wardens slumped slightly as the authority of the contract settled over them.
They stood back up and stepped to the side. They gripped the massive iron rings on the double doors and pulled.
The sound of grinding metal echoed through the spherical cavern. The colossal doors slowly swung open to reveal the resting place of the dying Ancestor.